October 19-21, 2007--Twenty-five hundred social conservative activists
heard from all the major Republican candidates at FRC Action's Washington
Briefing 2007: Values Voter Summit, the second of these annual gatherings
(2006
Summit). Key issues for these activists are abortion and
same sex marriage. A major question going into this summit was would
social conservatives coalesce behind one of the candidates? Another
major question heading was how the perceived frontrunner, former New York
City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, would fare. Given Giuliani's views on abortion
and gay rights, there has been some talk that if he were selected as the
Republican nominee, social conservatives might support a third party candidate,
although few here expressed that view. The major Democrats were invited
to speak, but none accepted.

Tony Perkins is president of FRC Action, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit legislative
action arm of the Family Research Council. Co-sponsoring the summit
were Focus on the Family Action (Dr. James Dobson), American Values (Gary
Bauer), American Family Association Action (Don Wildmon), Alliance Defense
Fund (Alan Sears) and High Impact Leadership Coalition (Bishop Harry Jackson).

The Straw Poll tallied 5,775 votes but produced an ambiguous outcome.
In addition to participants voting at the event, FRC Action members could
vote online; to become an FRC Action member one only needed to make a donation
of as little as a dollar through the website. Further, the voting
started in August.